I don’t think I’ve mentioned on this blog before how extraordinarily violent East Chicago is. I spoke to Nora Ferrer and her brother today. They lost their brother to gun violence 11-years ago. I am terribly sorry for their loss. Nora and other women including her mother have channelled their loss in an effort to help the community.

During the past two decades East Chicago has experienced between 15-to-32 murders a year. That is more than 200 murders in two decades in a city of 30,000 people. You do the math.

Several years ago I worked with At-Risk-Teens. To get to know them I decided I would video interview them individually. In the process of interviewing them I was shocked to discovered that each one of these kids had one or more family members murdered, some had actually seen them die.

More recently, my brother-in-law, who coaches basketball, had a player who was murdered on his way home from practice. This effected him and his players deeply as it did many other school kids. It turned out the murderer was the Chief of Police’s nephew.

A problem we face here when something as horrific as this occurs is the lack of grief counseling for those effected. When this occurred my wife contacted a counselor at the University of Chicago who organized a group of counselors to donate their time, but the East Chicago school district, and teacher’s Union would not allow them to come in and help. Consequently no one ever received the counseling they desperately needed. This is a problem that repeats itself 15-to-32 times a year.

You can only imagine what this level of chronic violence and grief without aid is doing to this community.

P.S. { lifted from a comment I made on Facebook }
“Last month I witnessed a 13 year-old neighbor girl get mugged in front of my house and I called 911 while following the muggers. 911 told me they wouldn’t send anyone and that I ought to stop following them. When I returned home an officer was talking with the girl. The officer never asked me for a statement. When I told him what just happened to me with the 911 operator, he responded “well, we only have four officers on the streets, and can’t cover everything.” At that moment Debbie Balonous (sp?) came up, knowing the girl - she was truly concerned, but when she saw I was involved and heard the answer I just got from the officer, she just backed away and left.

I’m beginning to feel there are too many people in this city with family members or friends who are involved in criminal activity and no one wants to stand up against friends and family.”

Thomas East Chicago